A Tangle called Love - A Homestuck Angst Fanfic
by LaicosTenlis
Summary: A Homestuck ANgst FanFiction. Trolls attend school until the age of 5 sweeps. Join in a schoolroom adventure with Sollux, Eridan, Karkat and the others as they (try not to) learn anything and partake in the epic(ish) Highbloods versus Lowbloods war for power. This is a story of what made the relationships of the trolls to be. (Pre-Sgrub)
1. A Run-In With A Sea Dwweller

A violet sneaker slams down on his glasses, cracking them in two. Yellow blood trickles from the cut on his arm as the two highbloods jeer. The sadistic laughter echoes off the metal lockcases. A young olive blood rushes to his side, hoping to protect him from the onslaught. He pushes her away.

"Go AWAY, Nepeta! Ii don't need your help!" he yells.

"But… Pawllux!" she cries.

"NO!"

One troll, an elaborately dressed violet blood, steps forward. Twisting her arm in a viselike grip he laughs meanly.

"look, gam! little thollux lowblood has himself a matespirit." He crows.

"motherfuckers." The scorn in Gamzee's voice rings loud and clear.

The violet blood throws Nepeta easily across the hallway. She lands on her feet, claws out, ready for a fight, but is quickly pulled away by another troll, into the gathering crowd.

"What were you thinking, Nepeta?" The troll stares at her, cracked black shades obscuring his eyes.

"I don't have to get your purrmission to help somebody. He n33ded help, Equius!" Nepeta sniffled.

"And you just made yourself a fantastically easy target." He shakes his head "It's hard enough to protect you from them as is!"

"I don't n33d pawtection!" she pouts.

"But… Nepeta…" He pleads.

"You'd do a better job if you stayed away from them and didn't join in when they beat up Pawllux!" she hisses.

The bell rings loudly and she turns and stalks off, leaving Equius sighing in her wake.

Sollux thuds against the floor as the fist connects with his stomach. The wind is knocked out of him and he lies breathless as the cold, grey stone tiles are coated in a growing pool of yellow. The other trolls are all laughing, save one. She stands there, watching sadly as Eridan and Gamzee beat him to pulp. Gamzee wrenches him off the floor and holds his arms firmly behind his back. Eridan throws another punch. It lands squarely on Sollux's jaw. The other fist makes contact with his nose. Gamzee releases his grip and Sollux crumples to the ground. The girl flinched angrily, flickering rage contorting her face momentarily, before reverting back to an unreadable mask. Her hand twitched ever so slightly. Eridan slips and falls flat on his back, wincing in pain. She smiles ever so faintly and walks away. The crowd quickly disperses as Eridan rises, furious with anyone and everyone. He glares violently at the scattering trolls and marches toward the exit.

The once crowded halls fall silent and the squeaking of sneakers can be heard. Two trolls appear around the corner, tentatively walking towards the yellowblood, as though trying to approach a wild animal.

"sOLLUX? yOU OKAY, bRO?" the one with the larger horns asks.

"WHAT WAS IT THIS TIME? WHAT MADE THAT FUCKER BEAT YOU UP?" the other yelled.

"Karkat, thtop iit. He thoved me." Sollux muttered.

"SO YOU FUCKING HIT HIM?" disbelief was written plainly across Karkat's face.

"No. Then they triied to make me apologithe. Thath when Ii hiit hiim." Sollux's eyebrows knitted together, trouble was brewing.

"sTOP IT! kARKAT, sOLLUX! wE CANT FIGHT THEM IF WE ARE BUSY FIGHING EACH OTHER." neither troll bothers to listen to Tavros.

"DO YOU WANT TO GET YOUR FACE FUCKED UP ON A REGULAR BASIS?" Karkat rants "CAUSE I AINT HELPING YOU IF YOU DO!"

"Theriiouthly Karkat! Jutht becauthe you have the guth to thtand up and get your face pulped." Pale yellow trickles down his cheeks to join the puddle of darker yellow on the floor. Karkat stares.

"ARE YOU… CRYING?" he asks, voice gentler now.

"No!"

Sollux turns and runs, satchel lying forgotten on the floor, along the corridor, around the corner and out of the school…

_**AN: That's all for now, I will update when I have another entry (probably in the next few days). I try to maintain correct grammar/punctuation (excluding character speech/quirks eg Nepeta's cat puns) so please let me know if you spot something.**_

_**-Laicos Tenlis**_


	2. Deeds - Good And Bad

She peeked around the corner. He had gone. Run off. Left his two friends arguing in the corridor. They were hardly brave enough to stand up for themselves, let alone him. But he needed some friends. And any were better than none.

"kARKAT… THAT WASN'T VERY… NICE."

"WELL YOU WERENT GOING TO FUCKING TELL HIM!"

"nO… BUT THAT DIDN'T MEAN YOU HAD TO."

"AND WHY THE FUCK SHOULDN'T I?"

"nEVER MIND"

There was a squeal of wheels as the trolls set off home. Everyone knew it wasn't safe out after nightfall. Some merely chose to ignore it.

She was about to follow when she noticed his satchel. Unmistakably his. His symbol crudely painted on in red and blue… Sopor Slime? Bizarre. She capchalogued it and set off running. She would have to hurry to make it home before dark.

Pounding out the doors and across to her Gate, she leapt through, and raced along the rutted gravel track, already dusk had fallen. A sprinkling of stars twinkled in the pale pink of the sky. How ironic, she thought, that a place so cold and cruel could be so pretty.

Before long she came to a fork in the path, normally she would head left to her small farmhouse, but today she turned right, towards the city. She would have to be careful, if any of the Threshcutioners caught her there without a yellowblood to vouch for her, she would be culled immediately.

She knew which of the many apartments he lived in from the label on his bag, detailing who owned it and where he lived. Walking quickly but not running now -running would only draw unwanted attention- she went down streets and around a corner to Hive Complex S2.

She crossed the street, walked along to the complex and had one hand on the door when a sickle was laid lightly on her neck. She stiffened.

"Turn around." A grim voice said.

She did as he said.

"You are here unauthorized, yes or no?"

"…Y-y-"

"No" she whirled around at the familiar voice. He was standing in the doorway, injuries hidden by the shadows.

"The'th wiith me." he said "The'th here on my authoriity."

The Threshcutioner turned and stalked off, and with him went the sense of foreboding, of imminent doom.

"Thank y0u" she gasped "I th0ught I was a g0ner"

"Tho did Ii. What were you thiinkiing?" he growled "Iinthiide, now."

He ushered her up the stairs and into a small apartment. Shutting the door firmly behind him he turned and glared at her.

"I came t0 see if y0u were 0kay! And t0 return your satchel." Her eyes flashed dangerously.

"Well Ii'm fine. Thank you for the thought but you can leave now. You almost got yourthelf kiilled for a useless schoolbag." He yelled.

"Y0u d0n't l00k fine" it was true, the cuts and bruises looked terrible under the stark white light.

He snatched the bag, and shoved her toward the door.

"I can take a hint." She muttered. Opening the door and stepping out, turning for one final look before racing off, down the stairs. Sollux stood at his window watching her run out of the city and along the track until she was no longer visible in the fields of grass. He didn't see the tears streaking down her face as she ran.

Why had he been so mean? She tried to help him and all he had done was yell. He was becoming like Eridan, only nice when it suited him, picking on those he deemed beneath him.

**_AN: Sorry to those whom were waiting for an update, a lot of stuff went wrong with the file so I'm re-writing everything, I will try to update fortnightly from now on._**

**_-Laicos Tenlis_**


	3. New Day, Old Routine

Young trolls swarmed from the various gates and into the school block, among them Sollux, he hadn't seen Aradia since Friday and had wanted to apologize but didn't have the guts to go to her Hive to do so. She had probably come to school early to finish up her History assignment, the one they all had due next week. The bell buzzed loudly, breaking his train of thought, reminding him that classes waited for no troll, especially not a Mustard-blood like himself.

Math were depressing, as usual. Eridan and his gang sat at the back of the Classblock, messing around, just like every other Monday. The Teacher droned on about Troll Pythagoras Theorem, seemingly oblivious to the fact that none of the students were listening. The clock seemed agonizingly slow, chipping away at time as it does when one wishes to be somewhere else. A spitball smacked into his arm. Two minutes later, another landed in his hair. Sollux didn't need to turn around to see who was throwing them. The violet-blood's laugh confirmed his suspicions. A scrunched up scrap of paper knocked his glasses askew. Rage began to bubble up. What he wouldn't give to get away with punching Eridan's glubbing lights out… A paper plane found its way across the classblock and landed neatly on his desk. Scrawled across the wings in a familiar hand were the words 'If you're so strong then prowe it. Prowe you aren't a wweakling. Meet me behind the Scienceblock at 3:15. 1 on 1, so come alone.'

Sollux read the note again. Eridan was going to fight fair for once? That was hard to believe. And yet… this was the opportunity to finally get Eridan back for all the times he'd used Sollux as a punch bag. He wasn't going to just sit around and take Eridan's bullshit for another 4 sweeps.

Finally, after what seemed an age, the bell rang again, signalling that they were now free to eat lunch and converse with friends from other classes. As he gathered his books a familiar figure banged into him, knocking his desk over and sending his papers, and him, flying. Forcing himself to remain calm, he gathered his books and pencils, ignoring the mean laughter and left the room hastily so they wouldn't see his eyes watering. He was so focused on looking at his feet that he banged straight into her. They fell with a thud, his books spilling from his arms, her History portfolio flying open to expose a page depicting an odd fossilized shell. Pulling himself to his feet he offered her his hand.

"Thorry 'bout that." He said.

"Its 0k." she smiled faintly.

"About Friiday… Ii'm thorry Ii was mean, Ii jutht wanted to be alone, but Ii thouldn't 'ave thaid that thtuff."

"It's fine, really. I understand why y0u were upset."

"So Ii'll thee you around?"

"Sure." She waved before turning and walking down the corridor, Sollux watched her until she turned the corner and was out of sight. Shoving his books in his lockshelf and, slamming the metal door shut, made his way to the Cafeteriablock.

In the Cafeteriablock, Sollux found himself a seat in the corner where he, Tavros and Karkat usually hung out. He kept an eye out for Aradia, but she never came.

Karkat sat there, staring vacantly at table A, where all the cool kids hung out. Terezi and Vriska were bickering playfully over a dog-eared copy of 'Troll Twilight', their classes Summer Reading Project, Equius and Gamzee were discussing a variety of ways in which they could refine Sopor Slime to make it edible for an end of year Science Project and Feferi was laughing at something that Eridan asshole just said. Somehow, even the most dim-witted bullies always get the

Karkat cursed his blood once again. Refusing to disclose his blood colour automatically put him at the bottom of the social caste system. And besides, there was no way he could tell them what colour his blood actually was. He had very quickly ruled out being all secretive and enigmatic, there was just no way in fuck he could pull that off at all convincingly. Only Terezi was at all interested in what colour his blood was. She would always stare at him with a kind of questioning look on her face and whenever she spoke to him on Trollian she would ask him. He usually said something evasive and left the conversation. It was kind of annoying and yet, kind of cute at the same time. He wished he was a Tealblood or something so he could hang out with them. Highbloods always had all the fun. No one really noticed him or the others, sitting mostly alone.

Terezi looked up briefly, seemed to meet his gaze and smiling softly. She turned back to Vriska and yanked the book from her hands, holding it teasingly over the Ceruleanblood's head as the latter tried to wrestle it out of her grasp.

Neither saw Gamzee's gaze flicking between them.

Karkat stifled a grin, forcing his face to remain an impenetrable scowl as hope bloomed in his mind. Maybe. Just maybe…

**_AN: Sorry to those whom were waiting for an update, a lot of stuff went wrong with the file so I'm re-writing everything, I have given up on regular updates as I am working on another fanfic right now._**

**_-Laicos Tenlis_**


End file.
